AU President’s Cup 1. The AU President’s Cup is a loft award for superior performances in both old birds and young birds. A minimum of ten and a maximum of twelve qualifying races in which the competitor scores in the top 20% must be flown: five young bird races, four middle distance old bird races and one, two or three long distance old bird races, depending on local schedules. 2. Of the five young bird races, one must be greater than 200 miles and one must be greater than 250 miles. 3. The four middle distance old bird races must each be 75 miles or greater and 350 miles or less. 4. If three long distance old bird races, one must be greater than 450 miles and the remaining two must each be greater than 350 miles. If two long races, one must be greater than 450 miles and the remaining race must be greater than 350 miles. If one long race, it must be greater than 450 miles. A race less than 350 miles shall not be substituted for a long race. 5. Race distances in the above cases are determined to be the average of the airline distances of the individual competitors in the race (including no reports). In addition an individual loft airline of less than 75 miles disqualifies that loft for that race. 6. Any official race using AU race rules shall be considered. 7. In case of a flyer having more races than necessary to meet the above minimum qualifications, his best races shall be selected. 8. Failure to meet any of the above requirements shall eliminate a flyer from President’s Cup competition. 9. All pigeons in the top 20% are awarded AU Standard Champion Bird points. The score for each loft in a single race is determined by adding the points earned by all birds flown by that loft and then dividing by the number of birds entered by that loft to give the points earned per bird shipped. 10. In case of a flyer having results for the same race at different levels of competition, club, combine, etc., the best result shall be chosen. 11. Each flyer’s President’s Cup score is equal to the sum of the points from his best qualifying races from the young and old bird series as determined above. All competitors shall be ranked in order of decreasing score. 12. The National Data Base web site shall show four national listings based on competition levels, one overall listing and three segregated according to the number of birds in competition. In addition listings by individual AU zone and state shall be provided on the National Data Base web site. 13. The categories are 1) Overall, 2) number of birds per race is 100 birds or less, 3) & 4) actual cutoffs to be determined and chosen so the number of total lofts in each of categories 3 & 4 is equal. 14. Two methods for determining birdage are to be considered and one chosen: A. The average number of birds per race in the optimized qualifying races. B. The most common method of competing birds per application shall determine bird number category. 15. Qualifying birds must be banded in accordance with AU Race Rule 7.09. 16. Races must be flown from a single loft entry. Lofts, which race two or more teams or teams in two or more clubs, may not mix results of their teams. Upload deadline to the NDB is February 1st for Young Birds and August 1st for Old Birds.